Ebert, Hart lead Lions to win over Gators

Tuesday

Sep 27, 2011 at 12:01 AMSep 27, 2011 at 7:26 PM

Murphy notches 3rd shutout of season

Jim Sweet

Normally, one wouldn’t consider 2-0 a high-scoring soccer match, but Wellsville coach Dennie Miles appeared ready to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Liam Ebert and Niall Hart scored second-half goals and Dan Murphy notched his third shutout of the season in Wellsville’s 2-0 win over Allegany-Limestone on Monday.
“It was an avalanche, wasn’t it?” Miles quipped.
It was the first time all season Wellsville (3-5) had scored more than one goal in a game, and also the first time one of its games did not end in a one-goal deficit.
For quite a while, the game had all the appearances of a very slow-moving avalanche — or maybe even one crawling uphill.
“It might have just been that we were coming off a big league game,” said Allegany-Limestone coach Nick Gedraitis. “We’ve had a lot of overtime games and a couple of shootouts, so the kids might have just worn down.”
After a scoreless first half in which the two teams plodded back and forth and combined for only four shots on goal, Wellsville finally showed a little more life moving against the breeze after intermission.
In the third minute, Trey Sallazzo put a hard shot on net from the top of the box that Allegany-Limestone keeper Kyle Trietley had to be sharp on, and less than a minute later, Alex McLaughlin tested Trietley with a solid blast from even closer.
Then, barely a minute after that, the two Wellsville forwards combined on a pretty give and go. Sallazzo drew Trietley out of his net, but McLaughlin’s poke from about seven yards out sailed inches over the crossbar.
Still, from that point on, the game had taken on the appearance of it being just a matter of time before the Lions were going to break through.
And with a little more than nine minutes gone in the half, they finally did, when Ebert worked his way through the Gator defense and lofted a 10-yarder over Trietley’s head and under the bar for the 1-0 lead.
Allegany-Limestone threatened with a couple of shots about five minutes later, but Murphy chased Gerod Cooper’s shot from a sharp angle wide and then caught Sam Simpson’s 20-yarder in the chest.
With 15 minutes to play, a beautiful corner kick by Hart eluded Trietley in close, but about 10 seconds worth of kicking and thrashing by both Arek Olson and Jacob Robarts produced nothing but frustration.
On Wellsville’s next rush, Trietley had to be sharp again when Hart blasted a 15-yarder low to his right side. He managed to stop that one, but could not deny Hart on his next rush.
With six minutes left, the junior winger took a pass from McLaughlin, dribbled through three defenders on the right side, faked a crossing pass to make Trietley move and then tucked the ball inside the near post for the insurance goal.
The two goals represented Wellsville’s highest output in any game this season. The Lions had posted 1-0 wins against Bishop Kearney and — two weeks ago — this same Gator team. Wellsville also lost to Olean in overtime, 2-1, in its opener. But beyond that, there are four 1-0 shutout losses on the Lions’ ledger.
“I thought we came out and played a much better second half,” said Miles. “It looked like we were very sluggish, both mentally and physically, in the first half, but then we started moving better without the ball, anticipating better. Dillon Smith was working better on the outside. I thought Liam looked a little physically intimidated in the first half, too, but in the second half he really stepped it up.”
Murphy stopped six shots for Wellsville (3-5) and Trietley also made six saves for Allegany-Limestone (1-3-4).
“We’re still struggling for wins, and we know we’ve got a real tough game against Cuba-Rushford and their high-scoring offense coming up next,” said Miles. “Hopefully two days will be enough time to prepare for what they’re going to throw at us.”
Wellsville visits Cuba-Rushford (8-0) on Thursday. The unbeaten Rebels have outscored their opponents by a combined score of 41-3 this season and have the top two scorers in Section V — Carl Holmes (13 goals, 32 points) and Caleb Holmes (12 goals, 32 points) — and the 10th-best scorer in Rob Wight (eight goals, 23 points).

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